Need some advice - Gestational sac size

[Kristen78]

My husband and I have tried years to get pregnant and after many fertility treatments and surgery to get my ovaries drilled open it has finally happened.  Unfortunately things haven't been going so well.  At my 7w2d appt we got to see the sac, baby and heartbeat of 143 but my sac was measuring behind at 6w2d.  Measurements were sac was 14mm and baby was 10mm.  They brought me back a week later and the sac had only grown 3mm instead of 7mm so I was now measuring 2 weeks behind and the baby had continued to grow and was exactly the size it was suppose to be and had a heartbeat of 171 so now there was only a differential of 1mm between the sac and the baby.  Sac was 17mm, baby was 16mm.  Their "news" to me was that either the sac will grow or the heart will stop.  2 days later I went to see a high risk dr because I was sure the baby's heart had stopped by then and I wanted to get having a miscarriage over with and for them to induce it instead of waiting for it to happen naturally.  To our surprise the baby was still there and had a heartbeat of 171 again.  They didn't measure the sac stating once a baby and a heartbeat is found the sac size isn't important.  I am 9 weeks along today and go back tomorrow but am very scared they are going to find a baby with no heartbeat.  How important is the sac size and what are my chances of "catching up" and the sac growing to where it should be?  One Dr doesn't think it's important and another one does.  I am so scared and confused.  

[ALNO]

This was recent. It happened two months ago and now I'm seeing a high risk obgyn and he ordered some tests for to see if it was something wrong with my body since the baby was fine. It's so heartbreaking that my body killed my baby :(

[Kristen78]

I'm so very sorry to hear about your situation. It's so heartbreaking. Have you gone on to have a healthy pregnancy since or was this recent?  

[ALNO]

Sorry for your loss. I had the same situation as yours but I was pregnant with twins. First baby had exact same situation as yours and we lost the baby in 8 weeks and we lost the second one in 15 weeks. We still don't know why we lost the second one since everything was going great. It's very sad. Good luck to you

[Kristen78]

Thanks so much for your time responding. I came on to delete this post a couple days ago but couldn't find a way to do it.

Reason being - my scan last Wednesday showed there was no longer a heartbeat. :(  The sac had grown 5mm during that 7 day time frame which is better than the week before but still wasn't enough I guess. The differential ended up being 1.3mm between the sac and baby on that last scan.

I went through and had a D&C today since I was showing no signs of miscarrying and the pills they initially prescribed scared me once I researched it.  

We hope to try again in the New Year after we've recovered from this loss.

[Elaine Brown, MD]

Hi!
A small sac size or a slow heart rate either one are supposed to portend a poor prognosis for the pregnancy.  The fact that you are already 9 weeks along and the heart rate is excellent suggests that things may go your way. At this point, there is nothing to do but watch and wait, and pray if that is your style.  If you were my patient, I would do a careful survey of the fetal heart, and consider the possibility of an amniocentesis if the pregnancy proceeds--just to rule out the possibility that an abnormality of the fetus led to the small sac size.

I certainly hope that you take home a wonderful healthy baby in 7 months or so!

Good luck!
Dr B